1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telematics systems, and, more particularly, on demand text-to-speech (“TTS”) vocabulary for a telematics system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telematics applications are continually increasing in popularity, especially in the automotive industry. Such applications can provide numerous functions ranging from airbag deployment notification to emergency services. One pervasive telematics application increasingly found in more and more vehicles is a driving directions system. Once reserved for only high-end vehicles, driving directions systems are increasingly available in lower-end vehicles as well as a variety of vehicle brands, styles and types.
Typical vehicle driving directions systems include a user-interactive display, a processor with memory, and mass storage media. The driving directions systems may further include a global positioning system (“GPS”) receiver for detecting the current location of the vehicle. The mass storage media, which are used to store maps and other information, may include CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and the like.
The addition of the GPS receiver with the driving directions system allows for, among other things, turn-by-turn directions from one location to another. Because a GPS-based driving directions system is automatically aware of the location of the vehicle, the system can notify the driver when it is necessary to turn and in what direction.
An increasing number of vehicles also provide audible turn-by-turn directions. A number of GPS-based driving directions system utilize audible turn-by-turn directions to increase safety and ease of use. A typical audible driving directions systems may audibly notify the driver of the distance from a turn and the direction of the turn (e.g., left, right). However, these systems omit various other information including, for example, geographic names such as streets, cities, towns, counties, points of interest, and the like.